Aminex Triples Estimate for Tanzania Prospect
UK-based East Africa gas explorer Aminex announced September 4 it has upgraded its in-house estimate of gas initially in place in its Ntorya appraisal area onshore southern Tanzania, near the Mozambican border, from 466bn ft3 to some 1.3 trillion ft3 based on ongoing technical work, including data from the successful Ntorya-2 appraisal well and subsequent re-evaluation seismic.
The latest estimate does not include areas of the Ruvuma licence other than Ntorya, it said; a third party audit of resources is to be prepared.
Aminex CEO Jay Bhattacherjee said: “We continue to work directly with the [state] Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation to create an optimal development plan so as to begin gas production from the licence as quickly as possible.” It added that a gas commercialisation plan is expected to be completed this month by io oil & gas consultancy on Aminex's behalf.
The Ntorya gas prospect is within Tanzania’s Ruvuma onshore block, operated by Aminex with a 75% interest, and partnered by the UK’s Solo Oil 25%. Solo CEO Neil Ritson said Ntorya is “of significant national importance to Tanzania.”
The two are partners, with different equity shares, in the producing Kiliwani North field further north in Tanzania which Aminex said is currently producing only 10mn ft3/d; gas is piped from there to the capital Dar es Salaam.
Sterling in Somaliland
Meanwhile in the Horn of Africa, AIM-listed Sterling Energy said September 4 that a government-sponsored 2D seismic program of 1,000km full-fold data on the Odewayne Block in Somaliland was completed on August 24 2017, adding this exceeds a minimum work obligation on the company. It added that Sterling, which is fully carried by Genel for all costs, expects initial processing results from the seismic in 4Q 2017. Somaliland, a former British colony, is a self-declared state that most countries recognise as an autonomous region of Somalia.
Mark Smedley